Gates and Allen cash in shares

More than $100m in loose change for the boys

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Microsoft execs Bill Gates and Paul Allen have decided to offload more than $100 million worth of shares in the software giant.

Chairman Gates will sell 850,000 common shares valued at $59 million, while fellow co-founder Allen will flog 720 million - around $50.3 million.

The moves, which will provide loose change to the two, were revealed via filings at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Reuters reported.

It is not known if the shares - acquired in June 1981 - have already been sold. The two have 90 days from the date of filing to shift the stock. Gates ssubmitted his on September 8 and Allen on September 7.

This is the latest in a round of stock selling by the two. In the past three months Gates has shifted 4.15 million shares with a value topping $290
million, and Allen 16.2 million, worth $1.2 billion.

Gates, who is believed to be worth an estimated $50 billion, said yesterday that money came second place in his life. "You can't find the cause that is
as...important as that (health)," Gates told Reuters while visiting a children's clinic in India. ®